Re: O/T Financial Fair Play
a) Everton were pretty close to doing it.
b) If you can break the top 4, it is only a matter of time before someone breaks the top two.
c) He said the gap between the Elite and Non-Elite is impossible to overcome. Which it is not. If we are part of the elite it makes it even less so. Five years down the line we could be mid table or we could be top of the league. If we're mid table someone else must have overtaken us.
I don't think we're always going to be this good. That is basically what I am saying. If we are the Elite, then Anyone who goes past us must become Elite. If Everton finish above us next season would they then be Elite?
I guess it's where you draw the line about 'Elite'.
Liverpool were Elite for ten years or so. Are they still?
a) Everton were pretty close? In what way? They qualified for the Champions League once, and didn't even make it to the group stages. Since then their average league position has been 7th, and their turnover in 2010-2011 (last season for which data is available) was £82m, which was £174m less than Arsenal and £249m less than Man United.
b) Pure conjecture, and all evidence suggests otherwise. No-one has come close to doing it for even one season, let alone on a regular basis.
c) No he didn't, he said it can never be narrowed. And as I said, Spurs joining the top teams doesn't mean that it has been narrowed for everyone else.
And in any case I explicitly agreed that it's not
impossible to overcome the gap, but said that it is extremely difficult.
Yes, we should be clearer what we mean by 'elite'. I'm speaking mostly in terms of revenue, but also in terms of sustained success in the league. In any case the two are extremely closely correlated in recent years.
In terms of revenue, there is a clear 'break' (in 2010-2011) between Aston Villa, who had the 7th biggest revenue, and Emirates Marketing Project, who had the 6th biggest. From 20th to 7th the average increase in revenue is £3.5m. From 7th to 6th it's £61m.
From an average of £3.5m, to £61m. Then it's £10m (City to Spurs), £21m (Spurs to Liverpool), £38m (Liverpool to Chelsea), £34m (Chelsea to Arsenal) and, right at the top, £75m (Arsenal to United).
So I'm talking about those six teams being the current elite. And evem within that elite there are very big differences between each team, MUCH bigger than the differences between the non-elite teams.
Previous to Spurs' CL qualification and City's sugardaddy, the other four were the elite.
EDIT: Data taken from here:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2012/may/23/premier-league-accounts-profit-debt